Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. It all seemed like a good idea at the time. But now I realize this project started as a quilt-show impulse purchase and has just snowballed into a project that's just not in any decorating concept I've ever had for my home.

But... I'm itchin' to quilt and trying not to buy anything until my employment situation is well and truly sorted. So here I am....working on a quilt that is just waaaay too funky for me.

I've been thinking of making a quilt for my niece, so I may end up sending this one to her. But I'm not even sure if it's her kind of thing. So... we'll see.

I'm vowing to do a better job of stashing in the future. I'm going to get a clear concept of the kind of quilts I want in my home, and buy accordingly. No more impulse fabric purchases. Hold me to it!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Right before Christmas I had the good fortune to stay at Castle5000, home of fellow quilter Michael5000. In addition to having a roof over my head (woo hoo!), I was reunited with my quilts, fabrics & sewing machine (WOO HOO!!)

I pretty much immediately started quilting again. Immediately as in, I pulled out some strips I'd cut down from the scraps of previous projects, started sewing them together and didn't stop until I had a quilt top done. *

I'd wanted to do a Stacked Coins quilt for a while, and had sketched out the basics a while back in my quilt notebook. So I already had a pattern, most of the strips, and even a couple yards of the orange fabric that I'd picked up cheap at the Fabric Depot summer sale back in the day. Stashes are good! I love my stash! =) The only thing I had to buy new was the binding, I am waaaay too lazy to make binding myself.

The plan was to give this one as a gift for one of the many new babies in my world. But in my haste to make something fast, I made a several mistakes.... one would be okay, two... is pushing it but after three I didn't feel good about giving it as a gift anymore. Not gonna point the mistakes out to you, but trust me, they're there.

Here she is, I'm calling her "Orange You Glad" - Orange you glad to be home, orange you glad to be quilting again, orange you glad that you have a bright orange quilt to cuddle up in? And the answer is yes. Yes I am!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

When I was a kid I just kinda figured it'd be the 19somethings forever. I had a vague idea that I'd be around when the year 2000 came, It just didn't occur to me that the 2000s would keep going. Basic mathematical concepts have never been my friends.

Well, now that 2010 is here, it seems like some new resolutions are in order. What to do in 2010?

Career related goals:1. My primary resolution is to find a job that I actually like. This will be a multi-phase goal, the first of which will be to find a JOB. But in order to keep from falling into a rut, I need to keep looking at job postings and applying for anything that looks more interesting that what I'm doing. Applying, or even going on an interview doesn't mean I'm going to take a particular job... but I need to keep looking until I find something spectacular.

2. Pursue a masters in teaching, with the goal of finding a job where I work with adults. Again, there are going to be a few parts to this, the first of which will be mostly information gathering... looking at different long-term career options and what it will take to get there. Once I figure out which program I want to get into, I will more than likely need to take some pre-reqs.

3. Learn Spanish...I've already seen a few interesting job postings that ask specifically for someone who is bilingual. I don't anticipate becoming bilinqual in a year... but if I don't start now I'll just be that much farther behind when I do start.

Social goal:4. Spend more time and effort on real life relationships and activities. I love the internet, you know I do... but I think I pour too much of myself out into cyberspace and not enough of it into face-to-face relationships. I'm going to continue to go to knit-night and hopefully start bowling again, and make it a point to host something at my as yet undetermined home once a month or so.

Artistic / Craftistic goals:5. Rebuild my stashes. I destashed quite a bit before I went to Thailand. It was good to weed out some stuff that I really wasn't going to use... but now I'm down to pretty bare bones. I have very specific goals for this stash building.Knitting: Mostly buy yarn with specific gift projects in mind, for example something washable for a baby blanket, or enough pretty varigated wool for a hat / wrist warmers... that kind of thing.Quilting: More batiks, more yellows and oranges, fewer calicos.

Hmm... I have quite a few more craft-related goals, so maybe I'll list those separately.

Hmmm..... twenty-ten. It'll be hard to beat 2009 in terms of 'adventure', but hopefully this will be a very good year for building & rebuilding my career, a home, relationships, my life!